HONG KONG /PRNewswire/ -- Vodafone announced today the Asia Pacific findings from its third annual Vodafone M2M Barometer report, the leading global survey of the Machine-to-Machine (M2M) sector. This year's survey results show that with over 35% adoption, companies in Africa, Middle East and Asia/Pacific(AMEAP) region continue to outperform other regions around the world in the adoption of this technology, compared to the global average of 27%.
Vodafone Asia Pacific head of Machine-to-Machine business, Justin Nelson said, "Asian businesses are well ahead of their global competitors through the accelerated adoption of M2M technologies. Across all markets in this region, we see heightened interest and adoption of M2M among companies to improve business performance as well as to turn these improvements into exportable products and services. M2M is the new normal where innovative use of these technologies is driving hard business results and helping Asian companies differentiate themselves in the marketplace."
Business Transformation
The Vodafone M2M Barometer Report reveals that in addition to growing awareness and adoption of M2M technologies, a significant majority of early adopters are already seeing clear business advantages from M2M deployment -- 81% of those surveyed have expanded their use of M2M technologies over the last year. Further, 59% of companies report a significant return on investment from M2M; and 83% see M2M as a source of competitive advantage.
Small and Medium Enterprise Adoption of M2M
The report also found that nearly 24% of the smaller SMEs (100-249 employees) use M2M, compared to 35% of organisations with over 50,000 employees. International Cleaning Equipment (ICE) -- a medium sized business with a manufacturing base in China and serving customers globally -- CEO, Simon Chen said, "M2M technology is a game-changer in the commercial cleaning industry because it allows our customers to better manage their resources to meet the required expectations. We chose Vodafone because of their worldwide coverage and comprehensive solution that helps us serve our customers better."
Analysys Mason Asia Pacific Programme Lead Sherrie Huang said, "The high adoption rates in the Africa, Middle East and Asia/Pacific (AMEAP) region were predicted -- and we continue to see this momentum being maintained as more regional businesses realise the value of adopting M2M technologies. In addition to the relative economic buoyance in the region, the lack of regulatory hurdles and legacy infrastructure and the proactive role played by governments in many markets around this region in pushing IoT as a matter of national policy are key reasons for accelerated deployment."
Industry Vertical Adoption Trends
Globally, the sector which has shown the greatest increase in use of M2M has been Retail, up 88% year on year. Retailers are using the technology for new payments services as well as digital signage in stores and driving efficiencies in logistics. The M2M Barometer also found strong growth in the healthcare sector (up 47%) and the utilities sector (up 32%). Meanwhile, the automotive industry continues to embed M2M as a core technology within the designs of new vehicles, with the accelerating production of so-called 'connected cars' accounting for a 14% year-on-year increase in M2M adoption in that sector.
The survey -- conducted by Circle Research -- has been expanded for the 2015 report to include two new countries and small and medium size enterprises for the first time, leading to an 80% increase in interview respondents.
A copy of the full report can be downloaded from http://m2m-mktg.vodafone.com/barometer2015
About Vodafone
Vodafone is one of the world's largest telecommunications companies and provides a range of services including voice, messaging, data and fixed communications. Vodafone has mobile operations in 26 countries, partners with mobile networks in 55 more, and fixed broadband operations in 17 markets. As of 31 March 2015, Vodafone had 446 million mobile customers and 12 million fixed broadband customers. For more information, please visit:www.vodafone.com.